Google Slides is a powerful tool for creating presentations, but one of its lesser-known features is the ability to make backgrounds transparent. This feature can be incredibly useful if you want to create a more engaging and visually appealing presentation. In this blog post, we’ll guide you through the steps to accomplish this.
Step 1: Open Google Slides and Select Your Slide
First, navigate to Google Slides and open the presentation that you wish to edit. Once open, select the slide you want to modify by clicking on the thumbnail in the left sidebar.
Step 2: Click on ‘Background’
With the slide selected, click on the ‘Background’ button at the top of the page. This will open a dialog box where you can change the background color and image.
Step 3: Choose Your Image
In the ‘Background’ dialog box, click on the ‘Choose image’ button. From here, you can upload an image from your computer or choose one from the web, your Google Photos, or your Google Drive.
Step 4: Making the Image Transparent
Now, this is where things get a bit tricky. Google Slides itself doesn’t provide an option to make the background image transparent. But with a simple workaround, you can achieve this.
You’ll need to use an external image editing tool to make the image transparent and then upload it to Google Slides. A popular free option for this is Canva. Here’s how you can do it:
Create a Canva Account
First, navigate to Canva.com and create a free account if you don’t already have one.
Upload Image to Canva
Click on ‘Create a design’ and choose ‘Custom dimensions’. The dimensions should match the size of the slide you’re working on. Usually, this is 1280 x 720 pixels.
Upload the image you want to make transparent to Canva. You can do this by clicking on the ‘Upload’ button on the left sidebar and then clicking ‘Upload media’.
Make Image Transparent
Once uploaded, click on the image and you’ll see an option to adjust its transparency at the top of the page. Drag the transparency slider to the right to decrease the image’s opacity until you achieve the desired level of transparency.
Finally, download the now transparent image by clicking ‘Download’ at the top right corner of the page.
Step 5: Upload Your Transparent Image to Google Slides
Go back to Google Slides, open the ‘Background’ dialog box once again and click ‘Choose image’. Now upload the transparent image that you downloaded from Canva. Click ‘Done’ and you will see the transparent image set as the background of your slide.
And there you have it! With these steps, you can easily create a transparent background on Google Slides. Enjoy creating more visually appealing presentations!